Action Research (Teacher Research) for Science Teachers and General Educators
Teachers can improve their practice by conducting systematic research in their classrooms. This is called teacher research or action research. The following resources can help you get started in teacher research.
General Websites about Action Research: http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/659
This website provides a nice clear description of what action research is and how to go about it.
http://celt.ust.hk/ideas/ar/faq.htm
This website also provides detailed information on how to do action research. The FAQ part is very impressive.
In the introduction part http://celt.ust.hk/ideas/ar/intro.htm , there is an image explanation about the process of action research. I think this is a good explanation of Kemmis & Mctaggart s’ definition of action research.
Peer Reviewed Papers on Action Research in Science Classrooms:
Robins, L., Villagomez, G., Dockter, D., Christopher, E., Ortiz, C., Passmore, C., & Smith M. (2009) Teacher Research: Challenging Our Assumptions. The Science Teacher, September, 35-40.
This article describes an action research study conducted in a chemistry class. Here they test the idea that it is a lack of math skill that is affecting student understanding of gas laws.
Capobianco B., Horowitz, R., Canuel-Browne, D. & Trimarchi, R.(2004) Action Research for Teachers. The ScienceTeacher, Mar 71, 48-53.
This article describes three different action research studies conducted by high school biology and chemistry teachers.
Hoppe, K. 2010. Assessing student motivation, performance, and engagement with an action research project. Science Scope, September, 56-60. This article describes an action research study conducted by a summer school science curriculum coordinator. They were interested in investigating the effect of inquiry based curriculum on student attendance, student performance and behavior.
Books:
Burnaford, G., Fischer, J. & Hobson, D. (2001). Teachers doing research: The power of action through inquiry. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
I highly recommend this book, not only because it has detailed information on action research and good research examples from teachers, but also because we have it available on Galileo Netlibrary (all student teachers can have access to netlibrary).
The chapter 2 of this book “Action research rationale and planning: developing a framework for teacher inquiry” is recommended as a class reading.
Reason, P. & Bradbury, H. (Eds.) (2001). Handbook of action research: Participative inquiry and practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage publications.
This book is the “handbook” on the topic. I have seen good reviews on it.
Teachers can improve their practice by conducting systematic research in their classrooms. This is called teacher research or action research. The following resources can help you get started in teacher research.
General Websites about Action Research:
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/659
This website provides a nice clear description of what action research is and how to go about it.
http://www.accessexcellence.org/LC/TL/AR/
This small article is a great place to start when thinking about teacher research.
http://gse.gmu.edu/research/tr/TRaction.shtml
This website has lots of information on action research resources, funding sources, bibliography, groups and etc. (almost all the topics about teacher research).
http://celt.ust.hk/ideas/ar/faq.htm
This website also provides detailed information on how to do action research. The FAQ part is very impressive.
In the introduction part http://celt.ust.hk/ideas/ar/intro.htm , there is an image explanation about the process of action research. I think this is a good explanation of Kemmis & Mctaggart s’ definition of action research.
http://teachersnetwork.org/tnli/Action_Research_Booklet.pdf
This is a booklet a institute made about action research. What I like is that the booklet gives a typical timeline (on page7) and an explanation of everyday tools (page8).
Peer Reviewed Papers on Action Research in Science Classrooms:
Robins, L., Villagomez, G., Dockter, D., Christopher, E., Ortiz, C., Passmore, C., & Smith M. (2009) Teacher Research: Challenging Our Assumptions.
The Science Teacher, September, 35-40.
This article describes an action research study conducted in a chemistry class. Here they test the idea that it is a lack of math skill that is affecting student understanding of gas laws.
Capobianco B., Horowitz, R., Canuel-Browne, D. & Trimarchi, R.(2004) Action Research for Teachers. The Science Teacher, Mar 71, 48-53.
This article describes three different action research studies conducted by high school biology and chemistry teachers.
Hoppe, K. 2010. Assessing student motivation, performance, and engagement with an action research project. Science Scope, September, 56-60.
This article describes an action research study conducted by a summer school science curriculum coordinator. They were interested in investigating the effect of inquiry based curriculum on student attendance, student performance and behavior.
Books:
Burnaford, G., Fischer, J. & Hobson, D. (2001). Teachers doing research: The power of action through inquiry. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
I highly recommend this book, not only because it has detailed information on action research and good research examples from teachers, but also because we have it available on Galileo Netlibrary (all student teachers can have access to netlibrary).
The chapter 2 of this book “Action research rationale and planning: developing a framework for teacher inquiry” is recommended as a class reading.
Reason, P. & Bradbury, H. (Eds.) (2001). Handbook of action research: Participative inquiry and practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage publications.
This book is the “handbook” on the topic. I have seen good reviews on it.